The Grimsvotn volcano began erupting on Sunday
Under previous guidelines, aeroplanes were summarily pumps christian louboutin grounded if there was any volcanic ash in the air. Now, airlines can fly through ash plumes if they have a safety case demonstrating that their fleets can handle medium or high-level densities of ash.
A CAA spokesman said most major airlines already have safety cases for medium-density ash clouds.
“We are in a much better position than last time,” he said. “Safety will still be paramount but we will be able to drastically reduce disruption compared to last time, provided there is not a huge amount of high-density ash.” The spokesman said a similar level of ash to the Eyjafjallajokull incident would not result in a mass-grounding. “It will be a different picture.”
BAA, the owner of Heathrow, Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen airports, has convened a crisis support team to prepare for a reduction in flights, as airlines and airports await a further briefing from National Air Traffic Services (Nats). “We are working closely with the CAA and Nats in preparing contingency plans if ash enters UK airspace,” it said.
Under the new ash guidelines, cloud densities are split into three levels: low; medium; and high. Once Nats assigns a particular density of ash to a section of airspace, airlines must prove that they have the safety case to fly through it. A low density cloud is 2g of ash per ten cubic metres of air, with medium being 2g to 4g of ash per ten cubic metres of air. Anything above 4g is deemed high density.
The Grimsvotn volcano began erupting on Sunday, causing flights to be cancelled at Iceland’s main Keflavik airport after it sent a plume of ash smoke and steam 12 miles (19km) into the air. Experts have said the eruption was unlikely to have the dramatic impact that the Eyjafjallajokull volcano had in April 2010.
“At the moment if the volcano continues to erupt to the same level it has been, and is now, the UK could be at risk of seeing volcanic ash later this week,” said Helen Chivers, Met Office spokeswoman. “Quite when and vibram kso 14 how much we can’t really define at the moment.”
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